CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – You no longer need to drive to Nashville to check out some awesome vintage guitars. The Guitar Haunt is Clarksville’s newest music store, specializing in vintage or rare guitars, amplifiers and pedals.
“I opened this shop, first of all, for me,” owner Lloyd Nicely told Clarksville Now. “I want to have a place like this, that’s cool. Where I dig everything that’s here. Second of all, we don’t have a high-end guitar shop in Clarksville. We’ve never really had a place that you can walk into and find instruments like I have here. I think that Clarksville needs this kind of thing.”
Nicely moved to Clarksville in 1993 when he was 11 years old and began playing music and working in music stores at a young age. “I got my first music store job at Colins’ Music here in town. I did everything over there from tuning and moving pianos, to working on guitars, to teaching guitar lessons. From selling strings to sweeping the floor,” he said.
Nicely then worked at Mary’s Music in Clarksville for about 10 years, “and then I had an opportunity to go and work for George Gruhn at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, which is a wonderful store and a renowned vintage guitar store. … I got to learn things there that probably I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else.”
When Nicely left Gruhn Guitars in 2018, he left with a vision to open his own shop with his partner, Sarah Jones. “Now we have two stores,” Nicely said. “We have a vintage store and we have Mom and Dad’s. If you can’t find a guitar you’re looking for over there, I probably have it over here.”
The Guitar Haunt is at 335 Academy Ave. and is open Thursday-Saturday noon-6 p.m. For more, visit the Guitar Haunt website.
Nicely’s other store, Mom and Dad’s Music, recently relocated to 230 S. Tenth St. and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.